Category: Media center

BULATSA participated in the meeting “ICAO Summit on Cybersecurity in Civil Aviation Europe, Middle East and Africa”, organised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation – ICAO, for discussing issues regarding the information security.
More than 400 delegates from 60 countries attended the event, among which the ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu, the EASA Executive Director Mr. Patrick Ky, the EUROCONTROL Director General Mr. Eammon Brennan, the IATA vice-president Mr. Rafael Schwartzman, representatives of CANSO, the industry, researchers etc.
Mr. Patrick Ky spoke about the importance of the exchange of information between the stakeholders and underlined that the cyber security shall be an unaltered element of the integrated management system and a part of the safety management system of the organisations.
The participants discussed the obligation of every air navigation services provider to play a role in the protection of the human life, in the continuity of service and the basic rights related to flights. The information security was designated as one of the major engines to guarantee the safety and the regularity of providing air traffic services.
It was noted at the forum that the information security does not only refer to the information technology but also affects the organisations as a complex of commitments, roles and responsibilities, people, their culture and technical skills and the technology.
Mr. Eammon Brennan highlighted the challenges to the aviation industry and underlined that the approach only at national level is insufficient and “we shall think about the cyber threats not “if” but “when” they will happen”. He underlined also that there shall be a balance between safety and security.
In many of the presentations it was noted that the cyber-threats and the cyber-attacks are becoming “a business” (“Crime as a business”) which is an exceptional challenge for all organisations worldwide.

The Gate One CEOs met on May 11th in Budapest to discuss high level ATM issues relevant for the Gate One region. The conference was dedicated to share views and formulate common positions on significant topics such as the new Network Functions Implementing Rule and RP3 preparation, and developments of the Digital Single European Sky concept. Gate One CEOs also expressed their view of the future ATM environment and fundamentals of the new CANSO Strategy. For the next one year term, Gate One chairmanship will be undertaken by Mr Kornél Szepessy, CEO of HungaroControl.

A high-level meeting between BULATSA Director General Mr. Georgi Peev and the Director General of EUROCONTROL (the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation) Mr. Eamonn Brennan was held on 8 May 2018. This is the first meeting of Mr. Brennan in Sofia since he took office as Director General of EUROCONTROL on 1 January 2018.
The talks were focused at stronger collaboration between EUROCONTROL and BULATSA, the challenges of the ATM environment, the forthcoming opening of the new airport in Istanbul and its impact on the Network.
The visit of EUROCONTROL Director General indicates the appreciation of the strategic cooperation with the Republic of Bulgaria as well as the high importance of the Bulgarian Airspace in the European ATM Network.
During his visit Mr. Brennan held meetings with the Minister of the Transport, Information Technology and Communications Mr. Ivaylo Moskovski and with the Director General of Civil Aviation Administration (DG CAA) Mr. Stanimir Leshev.
In the current context of transformation of the European air traffic management and the responsibilities of EUROCONTROL as Network Manager Mr. Brennan is amongst the most influential officials in the civil aviation area.
Before joining EUROCONTROL Mr. Brennan was Chief Executive of the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA). With over 35 years’ experience in both the public and private sector he has played a central role in the development of aviation policy both at national and international level.

BULATSA presented its modern infrastructure for air navigation services to the participants in the AUSTRIA SHOWCASE – TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE forum. Mr. Veselin Stoyanov, Director of European Programmes, Projects and Strategies, emphasized the great importance of BULATSA’s modern tools for the quality servicing of airplanes in the Bulgarian airspace. Among them are the modern automated air traffic services system, the new Mode S radars for servicing the overflying traffic and Sofia airport area, communication and navigation systems and devices, the new air-ground DATALINK, 3D simulator for airport towers training, etc.
By 2020, BULATSA plans to introduce a new aeronautical information system, expansion of the aircraft monitoring system, information security operational center, and more. Leading role in the development of aeronautical infrastructure of BULATSA has the European Air Traffic Management Research Program – SESAR, in which BULATSA actively participates.
The Forum AUSTRIA SHOWCASE – TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE has been organized under the auspices of the Federal President of the Republic of Austria, Mr. Alexander van der Bellen. In the Forum participate leading Bulgarian and Austrian companies in the field of transport infrastructure.

Regarding the increasing air traffic at Sofia Airport, BULATSA, DG Civil Aviation Administration and Sofia Airport undertook additional measures to limit the airplane noise at Sofia Airport, which came into effect on 26 April.
The measures are result of the purposeful policy of the three institutions to reduce the impact of aviation on the environment in the conditions of increasing traffic. The main priority is the safe conduction of flights in the interest of both the passengers and the residents of Sofia and the surrounding villages.
A procedure is being introduced to reduce the aviation noise for departures in the east direction, which provides for taking-off airplanes heading to West European airports to climb up to the absolute altitude of 4500 feet / 1370 meters and then make a left turn. The measure will allow aircraft to not fly over Dolni Bogrov village, and if some of them still do fly over, they will be at the altitude of 1000 meters above the buildings, instead of 400 meters as it has been so far.
The aviation noise upon stopping of the aircraft, after landing at Sofia Airport runway, will also be reduced. The procedure takes into account the increased runway length and provides for the aircraft to not stop after landing using the maximum reverse engine power. This will allow noise reduction over the neighborhoods closest to the airport (Hristo Botev, Suhata Reka, V. Levski).
In the cases of mandatory take-off in the direction to Sofia city, during the time interval 23.00 – 06.00 o’clock, they will be performed from the beginning of the runway. It is envisaged the whole increased length of Sofia Airport runway to be used, which will allow the flying over the city to be conducted at a higher altitude.
A procedure to prohibit deviations from the established flight routes with the purpose of reducing the route length, at an absolute altitude lesser than 5000 feet/1500 meters, will restrict the practice immediately after take-off airplanes to take the shortest route towards the destination airport. The measure will reduce aircraft noise over Sofia city and Dolni Bogrov village.

At the invitation of the Director General Georgi Peev, BULATSA welcomed a delegation of the air navigation services provider of Turkey – DHMI. Experts from both sides participated in working sessions to clarify current issues, the expected significant increase of air traffic in the summer season and the upcoming opening of the new Istanbul airport.
Bulgarian air traffic controllers are already preparing for the new challenge and for that purpose were conducted training real time simulations at the BULATSA Training Centre simulator for the introduction of Arrival Manager (AMAN) system for managing the arriving airplanes to the new airport.
At the meeting it was also discussed the signing of a contract between BULATSA and DHMI for installation in the two operating rooms of AMAN system for managing the arriving airplanes.

BULATSA provided additional air traffic controllers to control the air traffic after the failure of the central server of EUROCONTROL flight data processing system on 3 April. This failure required the introduction of the Contingency plan for servicing the take-off, landing and overflying air traffic over Europe. The backup data processing system for flights in the European airspace fills up with data again but is not currently in use.
It is expected that after midnight the system will begin to exchange data with the other systems in Europe providing information about the flights of the aircraft. Possible delays of the traffic could be generated as a consequence of delayed departures from the busy airports in Europe to the international airports in Bulgaria. There may be delays of the take-off and landing planes in Sofia, Varna and Burgas as a consequence of the restrictions imposed by EUROCONTROL.
All systems in BULATSA operate and the situation is normal.
Photo: Veronique Paul, independent.co.uk

35 Macedonian ATCOs from Skopije and Ohrid (with qualification Tower) started a refresher training at BULATSA simulator for operations in special and emergency situations during flights and will stay in Bulgaria until the end of June.
Experts from BULATSA Simulation Complex and their colleagues from M-NAV created playing exercises and scenarios for 3D models of Skopije and Ohrid airports for the purposes of the training. The models are as close as possible to reality and provide and excellent opportunity to increase the competence of the trainees.
BULATSA won a tender for this training as a part of its market search policy in the field of training and for providing its simulator as one of the most modern and high-tech in this sphere.